- For information on the Video Game's "New Caprica", see New Caprica (Video Game). For information on the failed Singer/DeSanto continuation series colony, see New Caprica (SDS).
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Lt. Margaret "Racetrack" Edmondson discovered the planet that would come to be known as New Caprica after her Raptor accidently Jumped to the wrong coordinates while on a rescue mission to the original planet Caprica. Excited by her discovery, "Racetrack" returned to the Battlestar Galactica with information and sensor readings on the planet.
New Caprica was surrounded by a dense nebula that rendered DRADIS all but useless. This made the planet an appealing strategic discovery, for theoretically, this would also hide the planet from Cylon detection. Ground surveys conducted of the planet revealed plant and animal life confined to a temperate belt near the planet’s equator. Because the planet was capable of sustaining human life, and because of its "protection" by the nebula, many of the travel- and war-weary survivors of the Fleet found the idea of colonizing the planet very enticing.
The planet became the galvanizing issue that Tom Zarek believed would swing the presidential election in Gaius Baltar's favor (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I). The gamble was successful. President Laura Roslin was voted out of office when Baltar convinced the population to elect him to the presidency on a platform of colonizing the newly discovered planet. His first executive order was for immediate colonization of the planet.
The Colony[edit]
The population center on New Caprica became New Caprica City. The city was inhabited by 39,192 human refugees of the Twelve Colonies. Life on the planet was not easy. There were major shortages of basic living materials and medical supplies. Most of the population lived in canvas tents. Many among the population of New Caprica City, including Galen Tyrol and the workers' union which he led, blamed President Gaius Baltar and his lack of leadership for the vast majority of the economic and social problems facing the settlers on New Caprica (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).
On the 380th day of New Caprica's colonization, the Cylons discovered the planet by tracing the energy signature caused by the detonation of the nuclear warhead that had destoyed the luxury spaceliner Cloud 9, a ship that had been orbiting New Caprica prior to the colonization. Upon thier discovery of the planet, the Cylons Jumped into New Caprica's orbit with a fleet of Basestars. The remains of the Fleet, including the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus, orbiting the planet and unable to mount any kind of defense against the invading Cylons, were forced to Jump away. Feeling he had no choice, President Baltar surrendered to the Cylons (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II) on behalf of what remained of the human race. Those left behind on New Caprica included former President Laura Roslin, Colonel Saul Tigh and his wife Ellen, Major Cottle, Captain Kara Thrace and her husband Samuel Anders, Chief Galen Tyrol and his wife Cally, Presidential aide Felix Gaeta, Maya and her adopted daughter, the Cylon-human hybrid Isis.
The Occupation[edit]
Under the guise of trying to establish co-existence with the human race, the Cylons instead became an occupying force on New Caprica; President Baltar and his staff were reduced to nothing more than a puppet administration controlled by Cylon rule.
Because the Cylon occupation led to numerous security restrictions and heightened levels of control and repression on the planet, a band of human resistance fighters, regarded by the Cylon-occupiers as insurgents, began to strike back against the occupying Cylon army. This led to the formation of The New Caprica Police, humans who either volunteered or were coerced into working for the Cylon authority. Wearing black ski masks, blue body armor, and green uniforms with white armbands, The New Caprica Police were regarded with both disgust and disdain by the majority of the planet’s human civilization.
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Led by Colonel Tigh, the human resistance began construction of a hidden, underground wireless communications center. Unknown to the majority of the human population on the planet, prior to the colonization Admiral Adama and Colonel Tigh had developed a contingency plan in the event that the Battlestars Galactica, Pegasus and the rest of the orbiting fleet were forced to abandon the colony. Each day, a Raptor protected from Cylon detection by the planet’s nebula, Jumped from the Battlestar Galactica into the far orbit of New Caprica, scanning for any contact from those left behind on the planet. Once the communications center was completed, the resistance was able to successfully contact this Raptor. The Raptor returned to Galactica with the news that the remaining human survivors on New Caprica were ready to begin organizing for an evacuation. Admiral Adama deployed a two-Raptor team, led by Sharon Agathon, to aid the resistance (Precipice). Though Sharon is a Cylon, Admiral Adama had grown to trust her while she was imprisoned on Galactica. He assigned her the rescue attempt’s most important mission: to retrieve the launch keys for those ships still on New Caprica. These launch keys, removed from their ships by the Cylons, are needed for ships to successfully travel at faster-than-light speed.
The Rescue of the People of New Caprica and The Second Exodus[edit]
The launch keys were successfully retrieved by Sharon Agathon and returned to their ships (Exodus, Part II). Admiral Adama then launched a full scale rescue mission with the Battlestar Galactica. Prior to the start of the rescue mission, Admiral Adama ordered his son, Captain Lee Adama to Jump away with the Pegasus and the remaining Fleet to a pre-arranged rendezvous point.
As the rescue mission began, Admiral Adama Jumped the Galactica into New Caprica’s inner-atmosphere, successfully launched the ship’s fleet of Vipers, and then Jumped back into the planet’s outer orbit. The Vipers were able to eliminate strategic targets and barriers that prevented the human population from reaching their assigned escape ships. The Vipers also created the chaos and havoc needed to confuse the Cylons thus allowing the escape ships to execute their own inner-atmosphere Jumps to the rendezvous point. While rescue operations were conducted on the ground, the Battlestar Galactica tried valiantly to stave off an attack by four Cylon Basestars. Just before the Galactica was about to be destroyed, Captain Adama , ignoring the order of his Admiral and father, returned with the Pegasus and was able to divert the Cylon attack on Galactica to his own ship. Thus, upon the sucessful return the ship's Viper squadron, Galactica was able to successfully escape by Jumping to the rendezvous point. However, the Pegasus was mortally damaged and Captain Adama and his crew were forced to abandon the ship. The surviving Pegasus officers escaped from the damaged Battlestar to the rendezvous point in a small fleet of Raptors. When the Pegasus finally exploded, it destroyed three of the four Basestars that had attacked Galactica.
While the rescue mission was considered a success, not everyone was able to escape the planet. Ellen Tigh was poisoned and killed by her husband, resistance leader Colonel SaulTigh, for collaborating with the Cylons. Maya was killed while attempting to make it to her assigned escape ship. Gaius Baltar was left behind. It was he, along with Caprica Six, who discovered Maya’s adopted daughter, the Cylon-human hybrid-child Hera, alive and unharmed next to Maya’s body.
With the humans gone, and with their possession and control of the hybrid-child finally realized, the Cylons saw no strategic or logical reason to remain on the planet. It is assumed, that like the humans, they abandoned New Caprica.